National Bitter Melon Council

Special Project with Los Angeles County Museum of Art, curated by Fallen Fruit

Feb. 2010–Nov. 2010

In our never-ending search for truth through bitterness, the National Bitter Melon Council conceived (as it were) of the idea of creating an organic “farmden” (farm+garden) for the promiscuous production of a new hybrid of meaning and melonness, titled Promiscuous Production: Breeding is Bittersweet.

The NBMC wonders what kind of magic this farmden might create?

Promiscuous Production: Breeding is Bittersweet experiments with the cross-pollination of opposite melons (Sweet Melon and Bitter Melon) in an attempt to breed a hybrid variety: BitterSweet Melon. Planting the melons together in a garden designed for maximum vine-to-vine contact, the two plants will cross with one another and fruits of each generation will begin to carry the genetic strain of the opposite plant. This is hybridization is possible only because: "Member of the gourd and pumpkin family, melons are notoriously “promiscuous,” meaning that they must be kept separate from other melons due to the fact that they readily pollinate each other." (wikipedia: melon).

It includes events in which participants to manually cross-pollinate (Promiscuous Conception Day), harvest seeds (Promiscuous Consumption Day), and package seeds to be sold as Instruction Works for Conspicuous Propagation, instigating situations that promote new senses of community.

This project is part of EATLACMA which a year-long investigation into food, art, culture and politics. Fusing the richness of LACMA's permanent collection with the ephemerality of food and the natural growth cycle, EATLACMA's projects consider food as a common ground that explores the social role of art and ritual in community and human relationships.

EATLACMA is curated by Fallen Fruit—David Burns, Matias Viegener and Austin Young—and LACMA curator Michele Urton.